Go for Wand golden opportunity to get graded win

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Saturday’s Grade 3, $250,000 Go for Wand at Aqueduct is headlined by a trio of New York-bred fillies in search of their first open-company stakes victory.

Bar of Gold, Highway Star, and Wonder Gal were among the seven entered Wednesday for the one-turn-mile Go for Wand, which will be the final graded stakes of the year on this circuit.

Bar of Gold and Wonder Gal are a combined 0 for 21 in graded stakes. Bar of Gold finished second in three consecutive graded events last year, including the Test, where Wonder Gal finished eighth. Wonder Gal finished third in the Grade 1 Acorn at Belmont in 2015, with Bar of Gold sixth.

Bar of Gold, trained by John Kimmel, is coming off an 18-length win in the Empire Distaff at Belmont Park, a race Wonder Gal won last year as a 3-year-old.

Wonder Gal, trained by Leah Gyarmati, is coming off a 10th-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint at Santa Anita and was initially targeting next week’s Bay Ridge Stakes for New York-bred fillies and mares before this race came up without a graded stakes winner in the field.

In the Breeders’ Cup, Wonder Gal tried to chase a hot early pace but couldn’t keep up under Kendrick Carmouche.

“I think she got outrun a little bit,”Gyarmati said. “They went fast early, and he wanted to relax her a little and make a run, but they got away from her.”

Wonder Gal will break from post 4.

Bar of Gold, who earned a whopping 109 Beyer Speed Figure in the Empire Distaff, drew post 3 and is the 121-pound highweight under Joel Rosario. Bar of Gold is 5 for 5 against New York-breds, with all five wins coming over wet tracks.

Bar of Gold is owned by Chester and Mary Broman, who also own Highway Star, a filly coming off a victory in a division of the New York Stallion Stakes going seven furlongs on Nov. 13. A 3-year-old, Highway Star gets eight pounds from her uncoupled stablemate, Bar of Gold, and four pounds from Wonder Gal.

Rounding out the field are Camille Claudel, Cayman Croc, Burn Control, and High Ridge Road.